Merge pull request #181 from ilonabudapesti/master

clarify day 1 homework

summer-of-code/week-02/day1.md

@@ -79,31 +79,39 @@ print(​'Come again soon!')​
 #### Reading and writing files
 
 
-#### Things to Try
+# Things to Try
 
 - Calculate a table for each letter in the alphabet from a-z, and count how many times each letter appears in `alice_in_wonderland.txt` (fancy word for counting stuff is "frequency distribution" - because you are counting the frequency of something)
 
-# a: 34,560
-# b: 5,027
-# ...
-# z: 893
+a: 34,560
+
+b: 5,027
+
+...
+
+z: 893
 
 Store the results in a list of lists:
+
+```python
 result = [  
             ["a", 34560], 
             ["b", 5027], 
             ... 
             ["z", 893]
          ]
+```
 
 Hint: use python's lower() method to turn all alphabetic letters into small case and count them (so "A" counts towards "a"). 
 
 Hint: Ignore non-alphabetic numbers, you can check with python isalpha() method.
 
-#### Optional
+### Optional
 
 - If you have already started Python the Hard Way, please choose 5 exercises and write tests for those in unittest and make them pass. Take your ex.py and your test_ex.py and zip them into a single file to upload for submission via the Helpdesk.
 
-- If you haven't started it and you have the .pdf then start the exercises. e.g. 1 - 10 a day
+- If you haven't started it and you have the .pdf then start the exercises. e.g. 1 - 10 a day. Please note that exercises differ a lot: some are very short, so you could complete more than one a day. Some of them e.g. ex 37 are very long and have long lists of things to try (almost like a reference) as well as many exercises within them. These longer ones could take several days, if not weeks to complete fully.
+
+Aim to read through about 10 a day, and to complete 1 a day, if you can. You are encouraged to work WITH mentors all the time, if you have access to them in Gold and VIP, and/or to work with each other in pairs or even groups if you are DIYers.